It is never about sacrifice – it’s about recognition of values

Sacrifice is a horrible word, that gets constantly abused. I could probably write a post on consequences on the mind and your happiness that the abuse of this word causes, but I won’t.

At least, not today.

Anyway.

If you goto the gym, workout hard, get really tired; is that a sacrifice?

If you wake up an hour earlier every day to get guitar practice time in, is that a sacrifice?

If you work on writing for your blog every day, is that a sacrifice?

If you choose not to eat chocolate and bread every day, is that a sacrifice?

No.

It’s a recognition of values. It’s a recognition that there is something that you want to achieve, and work has to be done to achieve it, something has to change in order to achieve what it is you want.

Deciding one value has priority over another, is not a sacrifice. It’s vital for being a happy and successful human.

If you think of future goals in terms of sacrificing XYZ, then of course you will feel bad (and that is why the term is thrown around so much).

When I was at university preparing to record for my university band, there were nights that I would sit in my room and practice, rather than go out partying with my friends.

One night I did over 200 takes on a guitar solo, when I could have been drinking beers and making jokes.

It wasn’t a sacrifice, it was a recognition of the long term goals I wanted to achieve.

(Also, all 200 takes sucked so I had to do it again the next night).

Something is always better than nothing

There are going to be days that you don’t want to work out.

Guaranteed.

You’re human.

But doing something, even a little bit, is always better than doing nothing.

If you really, really don’t want to got the gym… go anyway.

Maybe try out some different exercises, change up your routine a little bit, do something to make it more interesting.

Sometimes I don’t want to practice guitar. Sometimes, sitting down and playing scales gets boring. Writing a new song can be frustrating.

So I’ll do something. Maybe throw on some backing tracks and just jam to them for 30 minutes – it beats doing nothing.

Or edit a bass line.

Doing something is always better than nothing, and it’s better to move forwards by a single step, than not at all.

Want to do a 5 minute something to get some extra money? Find something you have and list it on craigslist / gumtree / eBay.

Your life has to be congruent

Your lifestyle has to support the habit.

This is where most people fail big time.

If you want to work out, and goto the gym every day, you’re going to get results.

If you also eat kebabs and drink beers every night, then your lifestyle is going to destroy any gains that your new habit has made.

You can almost think of your life like a horse drawn cart. You are the cart. The horses are your lifestyle and habits.

If the horses are pulling in different directions, then the cart is not going to go anywhere.

If the horses are all pulling in unison, together, in the same direction; you’re going to get there faster than you think.

There are always multiple ways to get the result you want, but one will work better for you than others

“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”– Lao Tzu

Be wary of anyone telling you, that they have the exact solution for you.

They don’t.

The most likely scenario, is that you have to try a few different things out in order to find what really works for you.

Trying things out takes time, patience and perseverance.

These things take trial and error. No-one is going to understand you, your situation and your ambitions like you do.

And those things will change and evolve over time.

The workout program I used over time is an example of this.

I started off with some dumbbells and a pull up bar in the back garden. I had a bench that I made out of some bricks and a piece of wood. The pull up bar was suspended off a tree with some rope.

It was actually pretty good – but I only had a few dumbbells.

Then I did crossfit. It was really fun and I made some incredible strength gains very fast. But, I also picked up injuries. For me, the risk of getting injured was greater than the rewards, so I had to find something new.

Next, I tried a traditional body building work out program and diet. That got some results, but the dieting gave me mood swings, I constantly felt exhausted and the workouts were too repetitive.

Then I tried Body of A Spartan, and found something that clicked. Interesting workout programs, dieting I could stick with and it was safer than Crossfit.

It took literally years of trial and error.

But… everything worth having does.

For any goal, there are an enormous amount of ways you can achieve it.

Anyone saying that there is only one way, or they have the way, is going to sell you something and has no real interest in you achieving your goal.

There is no way to avoid the trial and error aspect of achieving whatever you want.

I can see this across my life, in my guitar playing, business, and relationships.

Screw up, learn from it, and move on.

Hard work is the best way to feel good

No-one has ever felt bad from working out.

You might feel sore.

You might feel tired.

But you don’t feel bad.

Working out feels good.

And working hard feels good.

More specifically, working hard towards something you want to achieve feels good.

Working hard at something you hate, creates resentment and despair.

Setting yourself a challenge and working at it, feels good.

You look back at what you did and you say, “I did that”.

Making my album was crazy challenging. I had to work hard, and really push myself to finish it.

And while it is a great heavy metal album, it hasn’t exactly been the worlds most successful album (yet).

But I look back on it with pride, and I can say “I made this”.

I can hold it in my hand and say, “this is mine”.

I’ve been working on a 30 day blogging challenge – to write a new post for this blog every day, for 30 days.

It hasn’t been easy.

My alarm goes off at 5.45am every morning, so that I can get up and write.

Yesterday’s post took 5-6 hours to write. I wanted to quit on it several times.

This morning I wrote half of 4 different posts, before settling into this one and writing it.

But tomorrow, I will be able to look at what I did and say, “I did that. I made it”.

And *that*, that feels good.

Progress requires overcoming resistance

We get stronger from lifting, because we overcome the resistance of the weight.

All progress in life, in all things, requires overcoming some form of resistance.

And the more we push ourselves to overcome that resistance, the more we get out of overcoming it.